IDT with PowerTap

[Guest colonel]

Fair enough but its not a stab its a honest question that bothers me.

[_C50_]

I must add here and nail me please I dont mind' date=' I still to this day do not see the "must have benefits" of PowerTraining. If i have power I can get up a hill, go with a break etc I dont need a machine that costs between R6000? and R20 000 to tell me today my legs are tired?

 

If you use it for intervals etc then say you run a 10min interval at 175bpm @ say 40km/h then if you are getting stronger from the training you will be able to run it at 10min@ 175bpm but now you are doing 43km/h, you are getting stronger.

 

As I said IM not mocking power training at all here but I dont seem to understand the whole concept or the dire need to train with power or am I missing something here?

[/quote']

 

I'm with you on this one Sir, yes Sir.

[fandacious]

 

....or am I missing something here?

 

 

HR training isnt immediate. If i'm sitting @ 160bpm and suddenly put down the hammer, it takes a couple of seconds for your heart to catch up, by which time you're finished your interval. A power meter will immediately show you that you're working your ass off...

[Guest colonel]

Fair enough but here is some questions:

 

1) My legs and the stress on my body will tell me that Im working my ass off.

 

2) My legs will have to push out the power, regardless of me knowing or not cause I dont have a power meter to do that required interval.

 

3) From what Ive heard you cant put the hammer down.....

[bruce]

Colonel: there is no dire need to train with a power meter - Eddy Merckx, Greg Lemond, Miguel Indurain, and every other top rider before the late nineties did pretty damn well without the use of a power meter.

 

The benefit of a power meter stems from the fact that it is an accurate measure of how you are performing.  Being able to measure something accurately means that you are able to measure changes and accurately know whether you are improving, going backwards, or just staying the same.  So, training with a power meter improves the efficiency of your training, so you can either:

1. Spend less time training, and get the same results.

2. Spend the same amount of time training and improve your results.

 

If you are perfectly happy with your results, and believe that there is no room for improvement, then hey, rather spend the money on something else.  Or, if improvement of your results is not worth it to you, then the same argument applies.

 

Most of us that ride are competitive and want to improve.  What I can tell you is that I'll bet you spent a lot more on bike parts that would offer no where near the improvements you could achieve by training better.

 

One thing is for sure, you will train harder with a power meter than without if you do it right.

[fandacious]

Fair enough but here is some questions:

 

1) My legs and the stress on my body will tell me that Im working my ass off.

 

2) My legs will have to push out the power' date=' regardless of me knowing or not cause I dont have a power meter to do that required interval.

 

3) From what Ive heard you cant put the hammer down.....

[/quote']

 

 

1) your legs and body might be lying... how many times have you done a ride and thought you went balls-to-the-wall only to see it took you longer than your previous best?

 

2)when you're riding into the wind doing 30km/h instead of the 38km/hr you normally do, a power meter will tell you if you're doing the same work you normally do

 

3)thats why i dont have a power meter

[Marius]

thx Buce, I could not have said it better.

[Guest colonel]

Thanks Bruce, I was waiting for you to explain this to me, it makes sense with what you saying and yes I do want to get better and yes I was convinced I was going to beat you on the Argus until halfway up Suikerbossie and that BANG you heard was not the noon gun it was me going POP!

 

Ok all serious now thanks for the post and I will need to go back again and think about this whole thing really hard as to wether I go for it or not and consult with the elders.

 

Thanks again

[Guest colonel]

thx Buce' date=' I could not have said it better.[/quote']

 

NO NO NO Marius, you couldnt of said it period!

[Marius]

I know, that's what I'm trying to say!!! If you do get a PT, get the cheap one, I only use mine for training, so the SL is really a waste of money imo.

[bruce]

Thanks Bruce' date=' I was waiting for you to explain this to me, it makes sense with what you saying and yes I do want to get better and yes I was convinced I was going to beat you on the Argus until halfway up Suikerbossie and that BANG you heard was not the noon gun it was me going POP!

 

Ok all serious now thanks for the post and I will need to go back again and think about this whole thing really hard as to wether I go for it or not and consult with the elders.

 

Thanks again

[/quote']

 

You coach guys racing motocross, so there is another aspect of power meters that you will understand.

 

A power meter is a perfect log of what you did on a ride.

 

Benefits to coach:

Client says to you - you suck as a coach, I couldn't hold Andrew's wheel up Hekpoort.  Take a look at the data, either:

Client just beat his all time power average for that duration and therefore was giving it his all - coaching is working but he is just not as strong as Andrew - yet!  But now you know what you need to get to.

Client was below even his training ride average - maybe needs a bit of motivation, kick up the @ss, whatever.

Client couldn't hit the numbers because the last 60 minutes of the race he was on the rivet and was finished.

Client hasn't improved - maybe you need to rethink their training program and your coaching does suck, but now you can do something about it before you lose the client.

Gives you something to work with, set training goals, know what you are shooting for.

[Guest colonel]

100% why didnt you say that in the 1st place!!!

 

Thanks again

[bruce]

100% why didnt you say that in the 1st place!!!

 

Thanks again

 

Yeah, same argument applies if you are the coach and the client - which most people are.

[SwissVan]

I must add here and nail me please I dont mind' date=' I still to this day do not see the "must have benefits" of PowerTraining. If i have power I can get up a hill, go with a break etc I dont need a machine that costs between R6000? and R20 000 to tell me today my legs are tired?

 

If you use it for intervals etc then say you run a 10min interval at 175bpm @ say 40km/h then if you are getting stronger from the training you will be able to run it at 10min@ 175bpm but now you are doing 43km/h, you are getting stronger.

 

As I said IM not mocking power training at all here but I dont seem to understand the whole concept or the dire need to train with power or am I missing something here?

[/quote']

 

 

The main benefit is simple ? what you see on a power meter is a more accurate and a CONSTANT indicator of your effort. Heart rate is not a CONSTANT accurate indicator of your effort. <?:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

 

Take your 10 minute interval at 175 bpm as an example and assume that on a flat road with no wind 175 bpm equals 300W on ze good ole power meter gadget.

A. 10 min interval using HR only.

1.      For the first 2-3 minutes your hr will be less than 175 because it takes a few minutes for your heart rate get there, so you probably will spend the first few minutes riding to slow or to hard? (This in its self is another HR problem if you are supposed to do specific intervals lasting only a few minutes).

2.      After +/- 3 minutes you stabilize your riding speed to maintain 175 bpm.

3.      After another 3 or 4 minutes of riding at 175 bpm your actual effort and speed will be less than what it was at the early stages of the interval.

 

End result, instead of riding at an effort EQUAL to 175 bpm for 10 minutes you spent the best part of 10 minutes at an effort NOT EQUAL to 175 bpm, even though the good ole HR indicator was showing 175 bpm for 70% of the time. This effect is even worse if you do more than 1 interval, each subsequent interval at 175 bpm will equal less effort.

 

B. 10 min with power meter.

1.      For the first 20 seconds accelerate to reach a reading of 300W.

2.      After 10 minutes at 300W, slow down to your recovery speed.

 

End result, 9 minutes and 40 seconds spent in your target zone.

 

Now that?s how I see it, all I have to do is get one?.

Well my IDT has a built in power tap so half way there?

[Marius]

Swiss, it does not take 20s to get up to 300Watts, maybe for old ppl like yourself but for young guns like me and colonel it'll take a fraction of a second.

[Brakkies Sport Fotos]

Swiss you right, it takes us 20 sec to get to 300, but than it last for hours.

 

This piesang gets their in 5 sec, but it also only last 5 seconds.